The latest issue of the annual Mercer’s Cost of Living Survey has Tokyo and Osaka as the two most expensive cities to live in within Asia. Topping the 2011 list is the Angolan city of Luanda, which was also the most expensive last year, followed by Tokyo, which is again unchanged at number [...]

Image Source: Asahi

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced yesterday that the fertility rate in Japan increased by 0.02 in 2010, to 1.39 children per woman. The slight increase was said to be at least in part due to women have babies later into their 30s. While the fertility rate increased for women [...]

One of my pet peeves about life in Japan is the emergence of the dreaded election cars just before elections. There are city elections here in the coming days, and for a week or so there have been cars driving around the neighborhood blaring out their messages for the voters as they go. In Japan, [...]

The Japanese government’s nuclear safety agency has rated the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in the aftermath of the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami as a level 7 nuclear event, the highest rating for such an event. It had previously been rated by the government as a level 5 event, despite several international experts [...]

According to Yomiuri, The Japanese Red Cross and 3 other organizations will begin distributing money that has been received as donations after the North-East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. The initial payouts will be made through April, and set amounts will be paid to people depending on the degree of damage suffered.

It has been determined [...]

I’ve seen this story all over the place over the last few days, and given the fact that I’ve been trying to focus on some of the more positive acts in the aftermath of the devastating North East Japan Earthquake, I thought I would post this here too.

“Safe and Hound” was the headline at [...]

A follow up from last week’s story about SMAP’s big donation. According to Softbank, Japan’s richest man, CEO Masayoshi Son has offered to donate 10 billion yen, or about USD$120 million, to the Japan Red Cross, and other organizations that are working to provide support for those devastated by the recent earthquake and tsunami.

Son [...]

It has been reported that the popular 5 man marketing machine SMAP have made individual personal donations totalling about 400 million yen, or close to USD$5 million, to the Japanese Red Cross Society to help with the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that swept through North Eastern Japan. The donations were not made [...]

One of the most frustrating parts of living in Japan, especially if you work in a Japanese office, is the fact that 125 million people take their vacations all at the same time. And short ones at that. If you are a foreigner, you may get away with asking for a long vacation at an [...]

According to government estimates, the population of Japan fell by approximately 75,000 in 2009, based on births and deaths registered in Japan between January and October. During 2009, there was a decrease in births, down 22,000 to 1,069,000 and an increase in deaths, up 2,000 to 1,144,000 compared with 2008. These both continued trends [...]